OBJ verses STL

[greenwoods1462]

Hello,

I have always used STL for my models but have recently been told that OBJ file format is better.

I make model railway locomotives, design in Fusion 360 and print via shapeways.

Am I being given the best advice - is OBJ better for my type of work?  Will it create a smoother finish?

Many thanks in advance

[HughesTooling · Accepted solution]

For 3d printing it will not make any difference, actually as you have no control over the mesh exported using the online translators it will be worse because it defaults to a quite coarse mesh.

The only way to have control over meshing of a OBJ would be to mesh in Fusion then export the mesh, more work than STL and you'd get exactly the same mesh.

Brep to Mesh dialog is the same as the STL export dialog.